From a public health perspective, this study provides a genetic argument in support of early social interventions to decrease affiliation with peer drinkers. Specifically, these findings support the use of a screening tool for practitioners to identify at-risk youth, developed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the American Academy of Pediatrics, in which the first question addresses friends' drinking (NIAAA, 2011). Under the high-risk environment of best friends drinking, all adolescents were at increased risk for early drinking problems, and particularly, those at lower genetic risk experienced the greatest added risk. This study serves as a model of how understanding the interplay between genes and environments may increase etiological knowledge of alcohol use disorders and potentially inform interventions that aim to disrupt progression to alcoholism.
